Chapter Sixteen

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It had all happened so fast. Malfoy had tried to take back the prophecy, the Order had arrived, and Sirius Black had taken a fatal blow from his own cousin, Bellatrix, and before the children knew it, Dumbledore had come and saved them. Merida and the rest of the group had been quickly whisked away from the danger, bar Harry, who had been unable to contain his fury at Lestrange, and had followed her out into the Atrium. They had heard nothing of him since, but Dumbledore was with him, and so the young woman was not as worried for him as she would have been if he was alone.

The moment the group stepped through the emergency fireplace, emerging in the Headmaster's office, they were greeted by a large party of adults and a couple of students waiting for them. She had immediately recognised the flame coloured hair of Fred and George Weasley, the hooked nose of Professor Snape and a few official looking men and women, who she guessed represented the Ministry, and possibly the Daily Prophet as well, given the speed at which one woman was scribbing. However, these were only brief observations, as not a moment after the flames had died in the grate, Merida had been embraced in the comforting arms of her mother.

"Oh, Meri." her mother sighed, not caring at all that all the occupants of the room would now become aware of her secret. After all, at least half of them already knew her relationship with the girl, despite her attempts to keep their private life private, and as for the rest of them, she hardly cared what they thought. All she cared about was the fact that her daughter was safe and here with her.

Merida did not speak, instead choosing to bury her head in her mother's shoulder. Though she had appeared to be fearless in the Ministry, as she had faced up to Malfoy, she had only just realised how terrified she had really been. It never failed to amaze the girl the amount of effort she had put into getting out and away from her mother undetected, when the moment the Death Eaters had surrounded them, she had wanted nothing more than for the woman to come and find her. 'I guess I didn't know how much I needed her until she wasn't there anymore.'

"What did you think you were doing?" asked Minerva, a tone of reprimanding in her voice now that her relief had begun to wear off. Merida sighed as quietly as she could; she had known that the moment could not last, and she had been expecting the woman to start ranting at her the moment she had made sure she was alright.

"Sirius, Harry's godfather, was in danger. Harry went to find him, and the Ministry's dangerous, so I thought that he would need all the help he could get." she tried to explain, though the professor shook her head through the majority of her daughter's speech.

"Be that as it may, it is no reason for you to put yourself in so much danger, Merida. You could've been killed!" she exclaimed loudly, caring no more that the room was still occupied than she had done when she had held her daughter in her arms. Nonetheless, seeing that the moment was becoming a private one, Madam Pomfrey began to usher the others from the room, taking the teenagers to the Hospital Wing, to ensure that they had suffered no major injuries from the attack at the Ministry. When the two women were alone, they suddenly fell silent, neither knowing what they should say now that they did not have an audience.

"I'm sorry." Merida sighed quietly, unable to stand the silence any longer. Upon hearing her daughter's voice, Minerva looked up, her expression softened considerably during the time they had been silent.

"No, I'm sorry, Meri." her mother responded, her voice heavy with regret. "I shouldn't have been as harsh on you as I was. But you scared me so much. First, I realised that you were missing, and when I was told that the others were missing as well, I knew that you must've gone with them, and then I found out that the Death Eaters were there, and I thought that... I thought that you might have been..."

Tentatively, the young woman wrapped her arms around her mother, as the woman had begun to sob quietly into a handkerchief she had pulled from her robes. Immediately, guilt swamped the young woman again, as she realised how much worry she had caused for her mother, the woman that had loved her and tried to protect her all her life.

"It's alright, Mum." she sighed, trying to comfort the Transfiguration professor, to let her know that she was safe and that she was truly sorry for what she had done. She did not really regret what she had done; she had known that Harry needed help, and if he had not had them there with him, the events of the night may have taken a very different turn. "I'm not in any danger, I'm not hurt, and I'm here now. There's nothing to worry about, I'm fine."

However, a hint of a lie tingled in her mind, as Merida realised that this was not entirely true. Yes, there was nothing for her mother to worry about now. She was safe and well, and the majority of the Death Eaters would have been arrested by now, as the Order had come to head them off until the Aurors arrived. But she was not completely fine in herself; there was a dark memory at the forefront of her mind, not of the Death Eaters, the dark curses or Bellatrix's piercing shrieks of laughter. She remembered the venomous question Lucius Malfoy had asked her, and the meaning behind it. 'Draco has chosen his side, and I have chosen mine.' she thought, and she knew precisely what that meant.

'This is the end.'

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